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64 BOATING NEW ZEALAND AUGUST 2007

BOAT REVIEW: BENETEAU OCEANIS 40

Rich, round and full-bodied

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AUGUST 2007 BOATING NEW ZEALAND 65

A SOLID 30 KNOTS OF RAIN AND SOUTHWESTERLY WHACKED

us as we motored out of Orakei Marina in the new Beneteau Oceanis

40 and turned into the wind to hoist the mainsail – less its first reef.

ortunately it’s easy to hoist and reef with single-line reefing and an electric, 40 power

Harken winch. I’d appointed myself to that not-so arduous task on the halyard as it kept

me under the dodger and out of the rain.Even so, after watching Emirates Team New

Zealand nail the Louis Vuitton Cup in the wee small hours, I just wasn’t in the mood for wet, cold and 30 knots. Fortunately, the Waitemata couldn’t stay mad for long either and soon we were reach-ing off into more acceptable winds of late-teens, early 20s in flat water in Rangitoto Channel while the big black cloud looked for someone else to soak.

This new version of the Beneteau Oceanis 40 – in this case named Pinot Gris and definitely served chilled – calls itself a new generation of cruising yachts. It’s designed for private owners, rather than having its performance dumbed down for novice skippers on charter fleets. It has a high-aspect rig and a bigger mainsail and slightly smaller genoa than might suit the charter market.

Our crew were Dan O’Connor from Yachtfind-ers Global, which imports the Beneteau range into New Zealand; James Bourke of H2O Navigation who installed the electronics, and Gray Gibson who is running Latitude Yachting, the time share and fractional ownership company which includes this model on its fleet. Unfortunately, Pinot Gris’owner, Rob Irwin, was unable to join us.

As we bore away and rollicked along on a broad reach, I felt quite high above the waterline in the cockpit, more like a centre cockpit feel than an aft cockpit boat. However, the others disagreed with this so perhaps it was the low profile cabintop which gave me the impression of being higher in the boat.

All on board voted the cruising-dedicated cock-pit their number one point of admiration on the Beneteau 40. The dodger is supplied by Beneteau and I was impressed: it’s high with plenty of clear-ance around the jammers and winches on the coachroof so it’s easy to work halyards and other control lines. It provides good visibility for’ard through the clears and up to the mainsail, and is surrounded by a robust grab rail for support. Its cream canvas looked smart, too.

This boat is about cruising rather than racing and there’s generous, comfortable seating either side of a comprehensively kitted cockpit table with

ice box, lift up leaves for serving lunch – the leaves are secured down with a bungy; drink locker, winch holder and a power socket for a lamp. I couldn’t quite see the relevance of this lamp in the weather we had but the brochure shows an evening shot of the cockpit, with lamp a-glow, washing the cockpit in romantic ambience. Cute.

The cockpit is basically T-shaped with the twin helms either side, aft. This means the cockpit table has one more responsibilty: to be homebase for the Raymarine E80 chartplotter on a solid, swivel-ling mount. No matter which helm station you’re using, port or starboard, you can orientate the chartplotter towards you – love this idea.

There’s more room for instruments to be mounted near the helm stations and the controls for the Yanmar 40 are low, on the starboard side.

There are substantial grabrails everywhere, including in front of the wheels – a good idea; otherwise, an unsteady crew member is likely to grab a wheel for support. There is a spare tiller for emergency steering.

When I took the helm during our 20-knot blast, I found it extremely comfortable, ergonomically speaking. I especially liked the scooped footwells, which for me worked better than foot blocks which provide just one bracing position. Drains ensure the foot wells don’t collect dirt. The wheels, like the grab rails throughout the boat, are covered in leatherette.

The transom is also well managed, with a twin backstay and a lift up, central seat which gives access to the swimstep. There’s not a lot of room here but enough to board from a tender or from the permanently fixed, stowed boarding ladder.

There’s a gate in the lifelines across the transom and gates either side, midships.

The primaries are two-speed, self tailing, Hark-en 46s and well up to the task as we sheeted in our partially furled and later, fully unfurled, genoa as conditions eased. The helmsman can reach the primary winches, with a stretch.

All the sail controls are managed forward under the bimini, except for the furling line which runs down the port side to give line of sight to the furl-ing drum. The halyard winches on the coach roof are Harken: the electric 40 power winch is to port and there is a standard Harken 40 to starboard. The jammers work well; the control lines for the traveller, mounted mid-boom on the coachroof,

S T O R Y B Y R E B E C C A H AY T E R P H O T O S B Y M I K E H U N T E R

F

Pinot Gris, a Bene-teau Oceanis 40

in blustery condi-tions on the Hau-raki Gulf. Like her

namesake, she can attain a high

level of sweet-ness, but is also rich, round and

full-bodied.

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66 BOATING NEW ZEALAND AUGUST 2007

seemed to involve an unnecessary amount of friction, being directed forward from the traveller and into a U-turn to come back under the deck to the jammers. However, Gibson, who had been working the travel-ler, assured me it was fine.

Noticeable in the cockpit are what I call cowboy style saloon doors, which don’t do a lot for me, and open to the companion-way.

I admit I didn’t spend a lot of time for-ward; it looked cold and windswept up there, but access forward out of the cockpit, on to the coachroof and along the sidedecks was easy. The bow manages to accommo-

date the furler, a robust looking spare-man and anchor, and a generous anchor well with a Quick 1000 Watt windlass. The owner of Pinot Gris has added an anchor wash as extra.

An attractive touch, especially with the view from the bow, is the two, blue-green tinted, flush fitted hatches just aft of the mast.

Mostly we were sailing with cracked sheets – the boat was extremely comfort-able to helm in the gusty conditions and although her cruising hull and furling genoa were never going to give us the point-ing ability of a more racing-oriented model,

Pinot Gris was certainly covering ground: 8 knots in 18 knots true wind.

As we hardened up, the boat heeled more and exhibited some weather helm as expected but was easily in control – I could have happily helmed all the way to Great Barrier Island in the conditions – and the decks remained dry, aft of the beam. We had the odd gust up to 23 knots and a couple of times, with no one on mainsheet and full mainsail, we rounded up but the rudder is obviously big enough to deliver firm control. The boat is not a high main-tenance thoroughbred, she’s a trusty mate with class.

Below decks, rain or shine, feels wel-coming, functional and continuing Bene-teau’s recent move to a less traditional look – in other words, it’s lightened up.

The Beneteau Oceanis 40 has three cab-ins, two bathrooms and a saloon and galley, with engine under the cockpit and accessed on all sides via the companionway or the aft cabins.

The owners’ cabin is up forward with a vee berth, although it could be a tight fit for

FROM ABOVE LEFT: Easy sailing in 20-plus knots; good cockpit design; star-board aft cabin; main bathroom.

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AUGUST 2007 BOATING NEW ZEALAND 67

particularly lanky sleepers. The berth is on slats for good airflow. It’s an attractive cabin with a good step up to the bed, a generous drawer beneath. There is a small bathroom handy; the area can be closed off from the main saloon.

The saloon and galley uses full windows and overhead hatches to keep it light and welcoming. The galley runs along the port side, with a two-burner stove and fridge/freezer compartment with – love this – an electric ice drainer so no more leaning over head first into the bottom of the fridge mopping up.

The compression post for the mast is

unobtrusive at the for’ard end of the saloon and there is a table with a settee curving around to starboard, along the side of the hull and then finishing in an unbacked seat for lounging options.

Amidship, running fore and aft between the galley and the saloon table is a small bench seat. This fooled me when I inad-vertently leaned against it in the windy conditions and it moved with my weight. However, it’s supposed to do that, as it’s

Nav station and galley to port; saloon and bathroom to starboard. The central seat cantilevers out for convenience.

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New Bigger Boatlifter at Pine Harbour

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68 BOATING NEW ZEALAND AUGUST 2007

cantilevered to stow in under the table and out of the way, or to be out from the table for seating but where it is a slight hindrance to the cook in the galley.

The nav station got a particular tick of approval from me, with its half-size table, padded comfy seat and easy-to-reach fuses in the Beneteau digital switchboard – classy. Day or night, the switchboard makes it easy to see status of tanks, batteries and fuel, indicated in digital rather than analogue form. The TV, mounted on the main bulk-head, is linked to the GPS and chartplotter to act as a repeater.

The navigation light is white or red, to preserve night vision if necessary.

Although the chart table is just half-size for paper charts, the top of the freezer is just a step away and will do nicely as extra chart space, especially if two or more crew are leaning over it discussing the options for the day. The nav station is handy to the cockpit for exchanging information with those in the cockpit.

The quarter berths are spacious, making the most of the generous beam aft and pro-

viding high clearance – with a slight penal-ty to the cockpit lockers – and a cupboard with small hanging space and shelves.

The day head and shower I particularly liked, partly for its generous space. It lies along the starboard side, with head and hand basin followed by the shower, for-ward. It could be a little cramped for a big person but, hey, it’s a yacht, not the Hilton. Size aside, some bathrooms on boats are a real fiddle of trying to keep your clothes and towel dry while you shower but not so with this bathroom. However, it needs a little modesty curtain over the side port-lights unless you’re comfortable with your crew.

It’s great having two toilets on a yacht but even better if they’re on different sides so that, when cruising, no matter what tack you’re sailing there’s a head to the leeward side, guaranteed to be comfort-able and to flush easily as the intake is fully submerged. This boat loses that advantage having both heads on the starboard side but this is a function of having the com-panionway slightly offset to port to

OCEANIS 43... STIRRING THE SENSES

COMBINING TRANQUILITY AND POWER

A lavish and bewitching personality for an even greater love of the sea - a way of living

E X C L U S I V E N Z B E N E T E A U D E A L E R

Cnr Beaumont St & Westhaven Dr, Westhaven, Auckland, NZ Tel : 0800 4 YACHTS Tel : (64) 9 377 3328Fax : (64) 9 377 3325 Mob : (64) 21 477 306E-mail : beneteau@yachtfindersglobal.co.nz Web : www.yachtfindersglobal.com

www.beneteau.com

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70 BOATING NEW ZEALAND AUGUST 2007

provide good access to the starboard cabin, around the bathroom.

If you’re wondering why I’m spending so much time on the bathroom – some time

ago, I received an email from a woman reader saying we never say enough about this most important aspect of cruising.

By the time we came to drop the main-

sail the weather had cleared so it was easy to jump up on the coachroof and drop the mainsail into the standard lazyjacks and stack pack, and Pinot Gris proved obedient in going back into her pen. The boat is pow-ered by a Yanmar 40hp, in a white painted engine compartment that will hide no oil leaks, and surrounded by sound proofi ng so that engine noise is negligible in the cockpit or saloon. The owner has fi tted a Maxprop feathering propeller.

Overall the Beneteau has a certain robustness about it without appearing over-built – deck gear such as the spare-man, cleats, boarding ladder and harness points all feels up to the task and well installed.

The owners intend coastal cruising with their grandchildren and the whole boat gives the impression of being easy to oper-ate and cruise – from the swimmer friendly transom, albeit a little short on space – to

the friendly, easy to sail cockpit, confi dent and comfortable helming, through to the galley where two can work side by side, and the spacious bathroom.

The characteristics of the pinot gris grape include the ability to be tangy and light, or rich, round and full-bodied.

For coastal cruising, this Pinot Gris prom-ises to deliver – with taste.

SPECIFICATIONSBOATloa 12.17m, 40ftlwl 11.87m, 39ft 2inbeam 3.96m, 13ftdisp, light 7,680kg, 16,931lbdraft, deep 1.95m, 6ft 4indraft, shallow 1.60m, 5ft 2inmainsail area 37.25m2, 122,1ft2

genoa area 38.60m2, 126.6ft2

fuel capacity 200L, 53galwater capacity 360L, 95galengine power 40hpdesign Océanis 40designer Berret-Racoupeau Designinterior layout and design Nauta Design

It took three of us to test the waterproof qualities of the dodger in the 30-knot squall. It worked a treat.

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